TAPAH — Barisan Nasional’s success in retaining the Ayer Kuning state seat in yesterday’s by-election with a bigger majority shows that the voters in this Umno stronghold are accepting of the partnership between BN and its former nemesis, Pakatan Harapan (PH), said an analyst.
Associate Professor Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) told Scoop that voters in Ayer Kuning, which has been BN lynchpin Umno’s stronghold for 39 years, also noted acceptance of the alliance from PH supporters.
“The increase in votes for BN that we saw in this by-election came from the additional votes given by PH, helping the former to score a victory,” he said.
“Both BN and PH’s supporters have ‘partnered’ to help the BN candidate win the election,” he told Scoop.
BN’s Dr Mohamad Yusri Bakir won a majority of 5,006 votes, securing 11.065 votes against Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Abd Muhaimin Malek, who won 6,059 votes and Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s (PSM) KS Bawani, who won 1,106 votes.
The majority gained by Yusri was more than double the 2,213-vote majority obtained in 2022 by Ishsam Shahruddin, whose death on Feb 22 led to the by-election for the state assembly seat.
Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara, meanwhile, said Malay votes for PN are already saturated, and is a reason why the opposition coalition could not gain more Malay votes by playing on the illegal pig farming issue.
“I think they could gain 10%-20% (more Malay voters), but not beyond that. So using illegal pig farms, I think it has backfired, seeing that it alienated the non-Malay vote in this case,” Azmi told Scoop.
A case for continued partnership
Both Mazlan and Azmi said the by-election result made a ‘solid case’ for continued partnership between BN and PH in future elections both in Perak and at federal level.
“This could trigger a desire among both of them to continue their partnership in the future,’’ Mazlan said.
Additionally, Azmi said that the increase in BN’s majority this time quashed PN’s talking points that the working relationship between BN and PH is rocky.
“I think PN can no longer say that BN-PH cooperation does not work very well, because nearly 60% of voters turned out (and BN won) with more majority gained compared to the last general election,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mazlan said the by-election win highlighted an increasingly solid form of cooperation between BN and PH, which made the anti-DAP narrative peddled by PN to pit BN against PH ineffective.
“In fact, the working ties between Umno and DAP got better during the campaign (despite PN’s use of the ‘UmDAP’ label),” he said, referring to label used by the opposition to highlight the purported hypocrisy of the former political enemies in uniting.
Associate professor Chin Yee Mun of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) had a more cautious view, saying that the viability of a continued BN-PH partnership would hinge on developments and decisions in the future.
“I think this (election win) is what the unity government would like to have as of now. But we do not know what will happen in the future. There could be changes,” he said.
He also felt that the by-election result was not so much about Umno voters’ comfort with the BN-PH relationship, but rather that Umno’s supporters chose to stay loyal to the party, regardless.
“And as for PH supporters, (especially their) non-Malay supporters, I think due to the lack of presence of strong opponents, particularly PN, PH was able to secure the non-Malay supporters,” he told Scoop.
“So when both BN and PH paired up together, they managed to win a bigger majority.”
PN’s other failures in the by-election campaign was also using issues, such as illegal pig farming, which the coalition itself failed to address when it took over the Perak government following the Sheraton Move in 2020, Mazlan noted.
Additionally, he said the issue of Islamic teaching credentials which embroiled PN candidate Muhaimin, affected his image given his religious background and could have contributed to his defeat. – April 27, 2025